All posts tagged ‘Mass Effect 3’

You may recall the first video I posted in early April from our friends at USC’s graduate school of film. It dealt with the story of one man’s preoccupation with Mass Effect 3 and how it affected his marriage. So what do you do when you are in the middle of a sweet, bloody battle in Gears of War 3 and your significant other bursts in the room, demanding an immediate response? Let me remind you. To respond will require you to actually place the controller down, turn away from the TV and spend a few minutes in human interaction with them.

We’ve all been there, and know the feeling of panic as we imagine our brothers-in-arms being surrounded and pwned by bad guys and the deep pangs of abandonment, betrayal and dismay they feel afterwards. Andrew Allen and his crew have captured their version of “ludus interruptus” for us. Padinga, his production company, has released another entertaining video, the second episode of Padinga’s series on “video games and marriage.” The video is entitled Episode 2: Gears of War Versus Marriage.

Let’s raise our controllers in a toast to actors Ariana Kaiser and Andrew Allen; photography director Jeff Hayford; audio engineer Matthew Nyquist; producers Matthew Nyquist and Tiffany Gray and scriptwriter and director, Andrew Allen. It’s refreshing to see raw talent coming from the video game player community who also happen to be media creators. Activision, Electronic Arts, Radical Entertainment — take note.

Have you ever wondered what the students at U.S.C.’s film school do with their time? One graduate film student by the name of Andrew Allen came up with a humorous take on Mass Effect 3 addiction and how it affects a marriage. The best part, as Andrew reminded me, is that it’s not about the game’s ending at all.

Andrew produced the video skit via his production company Padinga. Let’s give a shout out to actors Ariana Kaiser and Andrew Allen; camera operators Eric Robbins, Jeff Hayford and Joel Townsend; audio engineers Erika Edgerley and Matthew Nyquist; producers Matthew Nyquist and Andrew Allen; and scriptwriter and director, Andrew Allen. Check out Padinga‘s site with podcasts, video game reviews and original videos. Great work guys and gals! Now we just need a crew to undo the damage done to all the Star Wars movies.

I’ve had plenty of time to play through Mass Effect 3. This game has hit the gamer community like a storm with massive sales and some very contentious issues that hit the forums of gamers all around the world regarding paying extra for DLC the first day of release (and whether it was on the original game disc), and, of course, the three possible endings for the game (and whether BioWare will completely change or just add to the ending). These are all issues over which the game journalism community and gamers everywhere have discussed feverishly.

All of the above speak to the current model of how game developers are releasing game builds and thereafter making add-on DLC content available. These are issues that do affect the fundamental trust relationship of the gamer community and BioWare, as the multiple kerfuffles demonstrate. But, the real change happening, in my opinion, is the paradigm shift of video games towards being a true synthetic art medium. Video games are by their nature interactive experiences, where the game developer provides content in the game, and the gamer undergoes an intellectual (and very emotional) experience by immersing themselves in that content. In the case of an action RPG like Mass Effect 3, you encounter choices as you progress through and interact with characters, and you make choices that will change the storyline. Back to the synthesis of art in a moment.

Spoiler Alert! – Some minor spoilers for Mass Effect 3 appear later in this article. If you’ve read anything at all about the game, you’ve probably encountered most of them, but we wanted to make sure you were warned just in case.

Electronic Arts (Bioware) is going on the rampage this weekend against the Reaper faction with “N7 Challenge Weekend” on Xbox 360 and PC. The squad level and community level carnage starts Friday, 3/16 at 5PM PST and ends Monday, 3/18 at 5AM PST. Are you good enough to wear the uniform of the N7 special forces? Get up, marines! Grab your assault rifles and frag some Reaper flesh for the cause. Now! Your mission briefing is below: